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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Soil under stress: The importance of soil life and how it is influenced by (micro)plastic pollution
ClearSoils in distress: The impacts and ecological risks of (micro)plastic pollution in the terrestrial environment
This review examines how microplastics affect soil ecosystems, including their transport into soils, changes they undergo in the environment, and their interactions with soil organisms. The effects depend heavily on the type, shape, size, and amount of plastic particles present. Understanding these impacts is important because soil contamination with microplastics can affect food production and ultimately human exposure through the food chain.
Microplastics as Emerging Soil Pollutants
This review covers how microplastics enter and accumulate in soils, their effects on soil health, microbial communities, soil fauna, and plant growth, and the implications of widespread soil plastic contamination for ecosystem function.
Effects of micro(nano)plastics on soil nutrient cycling: State of the knowledge.
This review systematically examined how micro- and nano-plastics affect soil nutrient cycling for carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, finding that physical interference with soil structure, alteration of microbial communities, and chemical toxicity collectively disrupt mineralization, nitrification, and phosphorus availability in contaminated soils.
How microplastics are destroying soil and human health
This review examined how microplastics harm soil health — disrupting soil structure, water retention, microbial communities, and nutrient cycling — and how soil degradation translates into risks for human health through food and water contamination. It argues that soil microplastic pollution deserves equivalent attention to aquatic contamination.
Sources, pollution, and ecological impacts of soil microplastics-A review
A comprehensive review summarized the sources, distribution, and ecological impacts of microplastics in soil environments, synthesizing evidence on how plastics affect soil organisms, structure, and agricultural productivity. The review calls for urgent policy action to address soil microplastic contamination as a threat to food security.
The Growing Problem of Soil Pollution with Microplastics: a Review
This review examined how microplastic accumulation in soil disrupts physicochemical properties including structure, porosity, and water retention, impairs soil microbial communities, inhibits plant growth, and causes oxidative stress, with agricultural soils identified as especially vulnerable to contamination.
Micro plastics in soil ecosystem - A review of sources, fate, and ecological impact
This review covers sources, fate, and ecological impacts of microplastics in soil ecosystems, finding that global plastic production has increased from 1.7 million tonnes in 1950 to over 320 million tonnes annually, with microplastics now detected in soils across all land use types.
Micro Plastic Pollution in Soil Environment: A Comprehensive Review
This comprehensive review covers sources, distribution, degradation pathways, and ecological effects of microplastics in soil environments, highlighting threats to soil fauna, microbiota, and plant growth.
The extent and impacts of soil pollution by microplastics
This study examines the extent and impacts of soil pollution by microplastics, reviewing evidence of how microplastic particles accumulate in terrestrial environments and affect soil ecosystems, organisms, and agricultural systems.
Tiny toxins, big problems: the hidden threat of microplastic in agroecosystems
This review examines the impacts of microplastic contamination in agricultural soils, covering sources from plastic mulch and irrigation, effects on soil structure, water retention, microbial diversity, and nutrient cycling, and consequences for crop health and food safety.
Can microplastics mediate soil properties, plant growth and carbon/nitrogen turnover in the terrestrial ecosystem?
This review assessed evidence for microplastic effects on soil properties, plant growth, and carbon and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Microplastics were found to alter soil structure, water retention, microbial activity, and nutrient cycling, with cascading effects on plant growth and soil organic matter turnover.
A global review on the abundance and threats of microplastics in soils to terrestrial ecosystem and human health
This review examines microplastic pollution levels across agricultural, roadside, urban, and landfill soils worldwide, finding wide variation but consistent contamination. Microplastics alter soil pH, density, and water movement, disrupt microbial communities, inhibit plant growth, and affect soil animals. For humans, the concern is that microplastics in soil can enter the food chain through crops and contaminated water.
A Review on Microplastic in the Soils and Their Impact on Soil Microbes, Crops and Humans
This review examines microplastic contamination in agricultural soils, detailing how microplastic particles act as vectors for toxic organic pollutants and heavy metals, disrupting soil physicochemical properties, microbial communities, crop growth, and ultimately entering the human food chain.
Effects of microplastics on soil properties: Current knowledge and future perspectives
This review examines how microplastics affect soil health, including changes to soil structure, chemistry, and the microbial communities that keep soil fertile. The effects vary depending on the type, shape, and amount of plastic present, but in many cases microplastics alter nutrient availability and can even influence greenhouse gas emissions from soil. These changes could threaten crop productivity and food safety, since microplastics are now found in agricultural soils worldwide.
Microplastic effects on carbon cycling processes in soils
Researchers reviewed how microplastics affect carbon cycling processes in soils, including their influence on microbial activity, plant growth, and litter decomposition. Since microplastics are themselves carbon-based materials, they can directly alter soil carbon stocks while also indirectly shifting microbial communities. The study calls for a major research effort to understand the widespread effects of microplastics on soil functioning and terrestrial ecosystem health.
Effects of microplastics on soil physical, chemical and biological properties
This review examines how microplastics affect soil health, covering their impact on the physical structure, chemical composition, and biological communities of soil ecosystems. Microplastics can alter soil water retention, change nutrient cycling, and harm soil organisms from earthworms to microbes. Since agricultural soils are a major reservoir of microplastics, these changes could affect crop growth and food quality, creating an indirect pathway for microplastic-related harm to human health.
What Do We Know About the Effects of Microplastics on Soil?
This review examines the effects of microplastics on soil ecosystems, covering how mulching, wastewater irrigation, sludge application, and atmospheric deposition introduce microplastics to soil, where they alter physicochemical properties, affect microbial communities, and carry co-pollutants.
Underestimated and ignored? The impacts of microplastic on soil invertebrates—Current scientific knowledge and research needs
This review highlights the critical gap in research on how microplastics affect soil invertebrates, noting that soil ecosystems receive far more plastic pollution than oceans yet the ecological consequences for soil fauna remain poorly understood and largely unstudied.
Microplastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystems: Global implications and sustainable solutions
This review examines microplastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystems, an area that has received far less attention than ocean plastic pollution despite soil being a major sink for these contaminants. The study covers how microplastics interact with other soil pollutants, affect plant growth and soil health, and discusses both policy solutions and practical removal methods to reduce the amount of microplastics that enter the food chain.
Microplastics in terrestrial environments: Reviewing current understanding to determine the positive and negative aspects of soil
This review examines microplastics in terrestrial soils, covering their sources, distribution, and effects on soil health and organisms. It finds both negative impacts on soil function and organisms, as well as some neutral or context-dependent effects, and identifies key areas for future research.
Specific response of soil properties to microplastics pollution: A review
This review summarizes how microplastic pollution changes the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil. Microplastics can alter soil structure, water retention, and nutrient cycling, and they also affect the communities of microorganisms that keep soil healthy. Since contaminated soil grows our food, these changes could indirectly affect human health through the food supply.
[Interaction between microplastics and microorganisms in soil environment: a review].
This review examines how microplastics alter soil microbial community structure and diversity, and how microorganisms in turn colonize plastic surfaces and degrade them through extracellular enzymes — with degradation efficiency dependent on polymer properties and environmental conditions.
Microplastic effects on carbon cycling in terrestrial soil ecosystems: Storage, formation, mineralization, and microbial mechanisms
Microplastics in soil contribute to organic carbon storage through degradation and leaching, but also disrupt carbon cycling by altering plant growth, litter decomposition, and microbial activity. The net effect on soil CO2 and CH4 emissions varies depending on how microplastics reshape microbial community structure and enzyme activity.
Effects of microplastics on soil microorganisms and microbial functions in nutrients and carbon cycling – A review
This review examines how microplastics in soil alter the communities of bacteria and fungi that are essential for recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. Microplastics can increase certain beneficial bacteria but decrease others that are important for soil fertility, and they also carry toxic chemicals that further disrupt microbial life. The authors note that most studies are short-term lab experiments, and long-term field studies are needed to understand real-world impacts.